


Reshaping the World

by kpop_Itsgreat963



Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Difference, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Fem!Aerrow, Fluff, Gen, Gender or Sex Swap, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29958573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kpop_Itsgreat963/pseuds/kpop_Itsgreat963
Summary: In this universe, Aerrow is born a girl. Some things don't change. Some things do.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 3





	Reshaping the World

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! So this has been sitting in my folders for a while now, and I'm pretty sure that I want to write more of it. But if I change my mind and don't end up adding anything, I still wanted this to be posted for anyone who might be interested because I'm really proud of it. Basically, it's a retelling of the series with fem!Aerrow who's a couple years older, and how some things would change because of it, while others would stay the same.
> 
> Fair warning, this had the barest read through for any mistakes. Hopefully there's nothing so glaring and horrendous that it'll make you cringe to read, but if there is then sorry, my bad! Let's just pretend that it doesn't exist. Also, there's a reason I'm not a mechanic. I did my best to be accurate with the skimmer/motorbike terms, but I in no way claim that I know what's going on with them. So if I get something wrong and you do know how motorbikes work (like 'oh you do x to make it accelerate, not y') or I named some part wrong and you know its correct one, please feel free to (nicely!) correct me. It'll help to improve my writing if I do any more for this story.

Her skimmer raced through the forest, dodging between trees as needed but mostly trying to stick to the dirt path that was barely visible. Over the sound of her ride’s engine, she could hear another, this one getting louder as her pursuer started to gain on her. 

There was a concerned chirrup by her ear, then a slight shake to her skimmer as her co-pilot jumped from behind her back onto his own seat.

“Just hang in there, Radarr. We’re almost there.” Unfortunately, she didn’t have the chance to reassure the blue creature more before her chaser let out a war cry, causing Radarr to let out another chirrup, this one more urgent. 

She shot a glance over her shoulder. Yup, he was still there, and still big, intimidating, and set on catching her. “Yeah, I see him,” Aerrow replied, twisting back around on her seat so that she was facing forwards once more. She gave a brief smirk, allowing cockiness to seep through to her voice. “But not for long.” She twisted her right throttle, her skimmer shooting forwards in a brief wheelie at the sudden increase in speed.

Aerrow veered deliberately into the trees, hoping that the Wallop chasing her, would make a mistake and either skid out or crash, leaving her in the clear for at least a little while. She should have the advantage here, as her bike offered more maneuverability than his did.

Instead, she heard multiple cracks of bark, followed by the thunderous crash of large trees hitting the ground, each impact causing the ground underneath her ride to vibrate.  _ Oh come on! _ she thought.  _ Punching straight through the trees has to count as cheating!  _ She didn’t have a chance to voice her complaints, though, before her nature-made obstacle course ran out, leaving nothing but flat ground until the edge of the terra.  _ That works, too, I guess. _

Without hesitation, Aerrow aimed straight for the cliff and the open sky around it. Adrenaline pumping through her veins, she drove straight off the side of the terra, entering into a free fall. She allowed herself a brief moment to enjoy the sensation of the wind whipping at her face, clothes, and hair, but grew concerned when she didn’t feel the telltale jerk that signaled her skimmer’s wings had been deployed.

Aerrow shot a glance to her co-pilot, only to see him covering his eyes in fear. “Radarr!” she yelled, trying to be heard over the whistling of the wind in her ears. “Wings!” He uncovered his eyes, noticed how fast they were falling, and let out a screech of alarm. He quickly grabbed the switch to his left, the one located on the back-right side of her skimmer, and pushed it up. Immediately, her front wheel pulled up and into the skimmer, even while its wings unlocked and spread out. Aerrow gave another quick twist to her throttle, allowing the crystals powering the machine to propel her up and out of her dive. She let out a “whoo-hoo!”, shooting into the air and doing a barrel roll just because she could.

Once she straightened out her flying, she turned to Radarr to give him a pleased smile. “Not bad, Radarr.” His unimpressed look in return told her what he thought of her stunt. She ignored him - he would just need to learn how to live a little. “Do you think we lost him?”

A sharp whistle answered her question for him. She jerked her skimmer to the left, just barely dodging a missile that trailed black smoke behind it. A quick peek over her shoulder told her that no, they hadn’t lost the Wallop. He was still trailing behind her, this time wearing a menacing smile and obviously pleased about something. He fired another missile, forcing Aerrow to once again dodge.

Not able to stop herself, she taunted, “You missed!” only to regret it right after when a bolt of energy hit her skimmer’s engine, causing it to smoke. 

She whipped her head up and around to the left, catching sight of a blond boy coming in to fly above her on his own skimmer, a crossbow shooter mounted onto the front of it.

“He may have, but  _ I  _ never miss!” he called to her, clearly proud that he had managed to get the drop on her.

She rolled her eyes at his words and turned back to Radarr. “Radarr, get that engine working,” she ordered, watching him dig through his compartment until he found a wrench. Once he had it in his hands, he jumped from his seat to the lower wing in front of him. There, he gave the engine a solid whack with it. 

Aerrow wasn’t too sure how that managed to fix the problem, but the engine had stopped smoking so she would count it as a win.

However, she had apparently taken her eyes off her opponents for too long, as the blond boy had fired off another shot, this one hitting Radarr and giving him a mild shock. Aerrow winced. “Sorry, buddy,” she apologized, turning her eyes back up to the sky and the other people in it, “that one was on me.”

But with her skimmer fixed, she was able to shoot forward again, easily outpacing the other two boys. “It was a nice try,” she called back, “but you’re not stopping us this time!” 

Her moment of victory was short lived.

A deep horn sounded out.

In front of her, a giant battle cruiser was rising out of the clouds. Shocked, she barely had the presence of mind to pull back on her skimmer’s handles, hard, skidding to a stop so that she didn’t go crashing into the glass of the bridge deck. By the time she came to a complete stop, she ended up face-to-face with another man.

Standing on the terrace that wrapped around the bridge, a Merb had both of his hands braced on the railing, leaning his weight against it and giving her a dark smile. “Gotcha,  _ Sky Kight,” _ he uttered, his voice low and hissed. She narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that if he was here, then- 

There came the sound of blades, and a Heliscooter came into view from over the battle cruiser’s roof. This new player was a girl with dark skin and golden eyes. She wielded a metal staff with a blue crystal shining on the end. She also didn’t hesitate in firing a shot off with it, hitting Radarr and coating him in a thin layer of ice.

_ Oof,  _ poor guy. Today just wasn’t his day.

“Freeze!” she called cheerfully, popping the crystal off the end of her staff and catching it in her free hand with a wink.

Aerrow heard the other two pull in behind her, effectively trapping her in a circle and blocking off almost all escape routes, but kept her gaze on the girl.

“Face it, Sky Knight, you’ve been caught,” the girl continued. 

Aerrow took a quick glance around herself. The two behind her stopped her from going backwards, and the battle cruiser in front of her stopped her from going forwards or to the sides, since she wouldn’t be able to maneuver around it before the other two could get to her. The girl was blocking off Aerrow from taking the high ground.  _ But, _ she thought,  _ that still leaves one direction open. _ She shot a glance downwards - perfect! There was a patch of open space directly below her, just next to the cruiser’s flight deck, and no one was guarding it.  _ Hello, escape route. _

The girl was oblivious to Aerrow’s flickering gaze, obviously believing that there was no way their target could escape. “The only way out is if you were crazy enough -”

Aerrow smirked at her, not hesitating to dive straight down, turning her skimmer to fit through the narrow space she had spotted just a few seconds earlier. This time, she kept her dive going, not pulling up even after she had passed through the lower cloud cover. After all:

“They’d be crazy to follow us through the Wastelands,” she commented to Radarr, who was finally thawing out due to the increasing heat the further down they kept going. 

Radarr made a sound that clearly conveyed that he thought  _ she _ was crazy for willingly going through them herself. 

“We’ll be fine,” she said, dismissing his concerns.

Around her, the clouds started charging from white to grey to black, but Aerrow didn’t pull out of her dive until she was flying only a few feet above the lava-covered ground, the heat coming off it only bearable because the wind from moving so fast was cooling her off. The smoke in the air stung her eyes, and the jagged rocks covered in lava rising from the ground, providing convenient places to crash against, reminded her why it was best to just avoid the Wastelands in the first place. Basically, they weren’t normally worth the hassle for a quicker journey, but she figured drastic times called for drastic measures.

Besides, there was no backing out now, so she gave a shrug and continued on her way, barrel rolling over any Lava Eels that lunged at her and even flying through twin plumes of lava that erupted in front of her suddenly, not giving her a chance to fly around them. 

Once she decided that she had traveled a safe distance, Aerrow started to climb higher into the sky at a steep pace until she broke through the cloud cover into the bright blue sky again, smiling as the sun’s warmth hit her face.

Unable to help herself, she shot Radarr a smug look; she had seen how he cringed and covered his eyes each time something got, what he thought to be, too close, not wanting to see what would get them if they proved to be unlucky.  _ He’s such a worry wart, _ she thought fondly. Out loud, though, she said, “See? Nothing to worry about.” 

His deeply unimpressed look spoke volumes.

“Oh, don’t be like that. Nothing happened. Now, what do you say we win ourselves a race?” At his look of interest, she pulled up her trump card - an orange stone no bigger than her palm, commonly known as a Velocity Crystal. Radarr nodded eagerly, so she opened up her skimmer’s crystal chamber and dropped in the small crystal, the hatch closing automatically once it was in. There was a split-second delay before the effect kicked in, but once it did she shot off in the direction of Terra Atmosia, which was easily recognizable by the giant tower rising from it to pierce the heavens, standing proud for all to see and letting off a blinding blue glow from its tip. 

With the Velocity Crystal in effect, she had closed the remaining distance between her and her destination in a matter of seconds. By the time she reached the terra’s outer edge, the crystal’s boost had worn off, leaving her to take in the beauty of the terra at a more leisurely speed, watching as dense vegetation gave way to farms, then as those farms gave way to the outer city limits and, eventually, to the heart of the city itself. 

A chirp to her right brought Aerrow’s attention to Radarr and off the scenery below. “What is it, buddy?” she asked.

He pointed backwards. She followed his finger to where he was pointing to a rather large tree growing out of the town’s main square.

“Oh.” She blushed. Apparently she had flown right past their agreed meeting point, not even noticing the (admittedly very large) landmark because she was too busy looking at the people and shops on the ground. She guided her Ultra into a lazy circle, making her way back to the town’s center.

Deciding she wanted to mess with her teammates, when Aerrow was finally back at the tree she circled around it, trying to find the thickest branch possible. Finally finding one that was at least thick enough to be five of her combined, she maneuvered her skimmer until it was hovering directly above it.

“Everything looks okay?” she asked Radarr, and upon receiving a thumbs up from him, gently lowered the Ultra down until it was balanced onto the branch. She switched it into its motorcycle form, then kicked her kickstand out and hopped off, staying beside it for a few seconds to make sure it wasn’t going to lose its balance and fall. She turned her back to it and leaned against the tree’s trunk. 

A few seconds later she felt Radarr’s hands land on her shoulders and his head resting on top of her own. They stood like that for the next few minutes, waiting, content to be with each other, taking the chance to just breathe after the chase that had lasted most of the morning.

Gradually the airship from before, the Condor, came into view, and together they watched as it touched down on the large hill that resided just outside of the town. The Condor’s ramp lowered, allowing a figure to run down and off the carrier before it closed back up.

_ If the Condor is here, _ she thought,  _ then that means the other three shouldn’t be too long now. _ Sure enough, only a couple minutes had passed before she caught sight of them approaching on their rides, Finn in the lead, Junko and Piper trailing not too far behind. Their skimmers hit the road of the town in their road cruiser forms, Finn and Junko riding, like her, a motorcycle while Piper was driving a scooter.

The three of them came racing up the street, obviously thinking that they had managed to beat her here and that first place was still up for grabs. Finn skidded to a stop in front of the tree, stretching his arm out so that his palm landed on its rough bark with a  _ slap. _

“Woo-hoo! I’m the winner!” he cheered, turning towards the other two, who had parked a few feet from the tree and were walking up to him.

“Actually, that would be me,” she corrected. She watched as all three of their heads turned left and right, trying to see where her voice came from. Finn was the first one to turn his head up towards where she was standing on the branch, the confusion in his blues eyes clearing as they met her own green ones. The other two, realizing where he was looking, turned around as well, so that they were facing her and the giant tree.

Realizing what she meant, Finn let out a groan and slumped over his skimmer, his posture the picture-perfect image of defeat.

Checking to make sure Radarr had a good grip on her shoulders, Aerrow jumped down from the tree, Radarr jumping down from her shoulders to the ground himself once she landed. She continued, “Which means the last one to touch the tree has to do all the dishes on the Condor - for a month.” At the reminder of the bet all of them made that morning, Piper and Junko pasted large smiles onto their faces and reached out to touch the tree themselves. 

Which only left Stork, the Merb only running up to them now. As soon as he realized he was the last one there, he slowed his run to a walk, stopping just past the parked skimmers. He wasn’t even breathing hard, for all that he had just ran across the town in a handful of minutes. Aerrow kept forgetting that for how stick-thin he was, Stork was incredibly athletic.

Stork gave a sigh and muttered darkly, “See? This is why I never leave the ship.”

Before they had to tease him about his newly-acquired chore, a young voice interrupted them. “Look, Dad! It’s the Storm Hawks!” 

It was a young boy, standing at the edge of the crowd that had gathered at the ruckus she and her squadron were creating. Standing just behind him was a man that had to be his father.

He, like the people around him, kept flicking his eyes between them and their rides, taking in the symbol stitched into their clothing or painted onto their armour and skimmers, proudly displayed for anyone to see, unhesitating in declaring who they were.

His face twisted into a sneer, nothing but disdain visible in his features. “Those aren’t the Storm Hawks. Not the  _ real _ ones.” He put his hand onto the boy’s shoulder, leading him away from them and back on their way. The boy shot a sad look over his shoulder at them, but he didn’t resist his father’s guiding hand.

Taking this as their cue, the rest of the crowd began to disperse, their faces no less pleased than the father’s had been that Aerrow and the others were claiming to be the Storm Hawks. One man even went so far as to spit at their feet, causing all of them to flinch back as if they had been struck.

Aerrow felt like she had been sucker-punched. While she had expected some people to not be happy that she and her teammates were taking up the Storm Hawks title, she figured that they would just need to prove to the doubters that they were the real deal, that they weren’t just playing at being a Sky Knight and her squadron. She definitely hadn’t expected such an overwhelmingly negative reaction to their mere presence. 

Seeing the devastated looks on Junko’s, Piper’s, and Finn’s faces, the sad one on Radarr’s, and the dark one on Stork’s, Aerrow pushed her shock to the side and put a small smile on her face. Today was supposed to be a good day, and she was determined to keep it that way. And the first step to doing that was to cheer up her friends.

She rested her hand on Piper’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze when sad gold eyes met her own, then made sure to meet everyone else’s gaze. “Don’t let it get to you, alright? We’re here to do something about that, remember?” She tried to keep her tone reassuring.

It must have worked because Piper, Junko, and Radarr regained their smiles, even if they were hesitant. Stork - well, Stork didn’t exactly  _ look _ happy - but then again, he never really did unless he was talking about something creepy and/or disturbing - but the dark look was off his face, so she would count that as a win. 

“Can we do something about this strange rash, too, while we’re at it?” Yeah, he was fine.

Finn was the only one who remained in a foul mood, trailing behind the rest of them as they made their way to the Sky Kight Council Hall. 

“I still think this is just a huge waste of time,” he muttered, glaring at anyone he thought looked at them wrong.

Aerrow shared a glance with Piper, silently communicating to the other girl that it was her turn to deal with the blond. Piper sighed and rolled her eyes, but she did turn her head so that she could look at him over her shoulder to address him.

“Finn, we’ve gone over this already. Even though Aerrow went through the trials and was rightfully Knighted, we still have to register with the Sky Knight Council to be an official squadron. Really, it’s just a formality at this point.”

“There’s not gonna be a test, right?” Junko piped up. “Because I’m, uh, I’m lousy at tests.”

“If it’s a lab test, I vote him.” That was Stork, pointing at Radarr. Radarr growled at him in response.

“There’s no test,” Aerrow assured as they made their way up the steps to the Hall and into the building proper.

The reception area was a small space, decorated with a desk in the front right corner of the room, a red carpet on the stone floor, and not much else. The walls were painted a warm brown, and there were three hallways in total. Two of them sat opposite to each other and led into the large chambers that served as public meeting rooms, while the last one went straight back and took a left, probably leading to smaller, individual rooms, which would have been used for smaller matters or private discussions and as offices for the Council’s members.

A woman was sitting behind the reception desk, a book propped open in front of her. She didn’t look up from it even though she had to have heard them enter.

Aerrow motioned to her team to stand out of the way of the entrance and wait there, then went up to talk to the other woman.

When she still wasn’t acknowledged, even though she was standing right in front of the desk, she brought her fist up to her mouth and cleared her throat.

The receptionist sighed but put her book down. Disinterested brown eyes glanced up, caught sight of Aerrow, looked her up and down, raised to meet her own. She looked about two seconds away from writing Aerrow off as a teenager trying to cause trouble and going back to her book. “Can I help you?” She obviously thought the answer was going to be  _ no. _

“Yes, please. We have an appointment with Chairman Heel,” Aerrow said. The receptionist’s eyebrow climbed upwards, clearly not believing her. “It’s under Aerrow.”

Another sigh. The receptionist reached over and pulled a thick book towards her, opening it and flipping through the pages as she muttered Aerrow’s name. “Ah. Here it is - appointment to see Chairman Heel.”

_ That’s literally what I just said. _

“It’ll be the chamber on your right. He’ll be a few minutes, though. He’s just finishing up some paperwork. You can wait for him in there.” And with that, the receptionist went back to her book.

_ Thanks for the help, _ Aerrow thought drily. She motioned for her friends to join her, and together they walked into the public meeting room on the right. It, like the reception room, had a red carpet and brown walls. It also had a podium sitting at the front of the room, positioned to be the center of attention, with rows of wooden chairs divided straight down the middle facing it.

The doors closed behind them.

They immediately went to stand in front of the podium, Aerrow only stopping by Stork long enough to make sure he had the necessary paperwork before she continued on to her own spot.

It was five minutes before Chairman Heel was able to join them. Five minutes of nervous, awkward silence, where they fidgeted with their fingers or played with their hair, and absolutely refused to make any eye contact with anybody else in the room. There was a collective, if unvoiced, sigh of relief when Heel entered the room.

He was a short, old man, with pure white hair, rather large sideburns, and small, circular glasses perched on his nose. He carried with him a rather thick and large book, open in his arms and eyes firmly fixed on it. He climbed the steps to the podium and took his seat, setting the book down on the surface in front of him.

He had yet to look up.

“Aerrow, was it? You wished to register as an official Sky Knight and squadron?” he confirmed. His voice was surprisingly deep.

“Yes, sir.”

He hummed. “And what is your squadron’s name?” He scooted his chair back and opened a drawer, pulling out another book, this one skinnier and with a blue cover. He opened it, reaching for a quill from the pot of ink resting by his side.

“We’re the Storm Hawks, sir.”

That got him to stop.

He took a look at them over his glasses. Hummed under his breath. Finished looking at whatever it was that he needed to. Closed the blue book. “Your registration, please.”

Stork stepped forward to hand it to him. Heel took it, looked it over. Mumbled under his breath while shooting glances at all of them over his glasses. 

She shared nervous looks with everyone else.

Finally: “Everything seems to be in order.” He signed his name at the bottom of the paper, then put it aside so that the large book underneath it was visible to him again. “You understand that this copy of your registration paperwork will have to stay here for our records?”

“Yes, sir.”

He dipped his quill into the ink, then gave them a soft smile. “All I need are your names and positions for the registry.”

One by one, they gave the old man their names and positions in the squadron (with Aerrow introducing Radarr) and he wrote them down into the large tome, occasionally reaching to dip his quill into the ink pot.

With that over, the old man set down the quill and gave them another warm smile.

“The Council will be pleased to hear that somebody has decided to reform the Storm Hawks. Your predecessors were greatly admired by all the free Atmos. But be warned - by taking on this name, you are placing a large burden on your shoulders; there is much to live up to.”

Aerrow breathed in through her nose, took a moment to gather her thoughts and center her emotions, then exhaled. She looked up at Chairman Heel and let her determination bleed through her eyes and fill every nook and cranny she had, until she was standing tall and proud before him, willing and able to take on this responsibility.

“We’re ready.” Her voice was sure.

“Then sign here, please.” He held the quill out to her, so Aerrow stepped forward to take it from him. However, this allowed him to see her through his glasses for the first time, and whatever he saw caused him to jerk the hand holding the quill back towards himself and out of her reach.

His warm smile was replaced by a stern expression. He pressed his glasses up his nose and took another look at all of them, this time through the lenses instead of over the metal frame. He started to frown. “How old are you?” he asked, his tone making it clear that his question  _ was _ going to be answered, and truthfully at that.

Aerrow’s stomach sank. This couldn’t be happening - not  _ here, _ not  _ now. _ She had been so  _ close _ \- literally within grabbing distance - to making them an official squadron!

She must have hesitated too long in answering, because Chairman Heel repeated himself, his tone even more severe.

“Sixteen,” she muttered, looking slightly to the side of him, knowing that she must look angry but unable to press it down. Why did everyone only focus on their age? It wasn’t what defined them as people, and it didn’t mean they were any less skilled at what they did.

So what if they were a little young? They just needed one chance to prove themselves - just  _ one _ \- but everyone seemed intent on stopping them before they even got it!

Some of her bitterness must have leaked through her voice, as the old man’s expression softened, regret filling his eyes. He brought his hand up and rubbed at his neck.

“I’m sorry, Aerrow, but, knowing your age, I can’t, in good conscience, register you and your friends as a squadron. If something were to happen to you…” he trailed off, but it was easy to understand his unvoiced words:  _ I would never forgive myself. _

Not able to stop herself in time, Aerrow’s mouth ran away from her, spitting out, “Oh, please. You’re probably more concerned about the black mark your record would gain if you registered us and we wound up dead not long after.”

_ Yeah _ \- it was the wrong thing to say.

Whatever softness that had been in Heel’s expression disappeared in an instant, his eyes becoming dark with anger. “Watch your tone  _ and _ words, young lady. While I do acknowledge that my decision does have some political influence in it, my main concern is for your health. The fact of the matter is that this job is a dangerous one, and you would be risking your lives every day to do it. This is not a matter to be treated lightly. While I do know some people that wouldn’t hesitate to send you into battle, the day I send children to die will be a cold day in Hell indeed!” He gathered his things, then stepped down from the podium and went to open the chamber’s doors. “I believe that we’re done here. You can see yourselves out.”

He swept out of the room, not once looking back.

There was a tense silence. Aerrow took a moment to just - breathe. Uncurl her hands from the balled up fists they’d made at some point. Tip her head back, close her eyes, center her emotions.

Then she looked to the left, where all her friends were all looking at any place that wasn’t her, their postures screaming how uncomfortable they were.

She released a sigh, rubbing at the back of her neck. “I’m sorry, guys. I let my temper get the better of me.” That caught their attention, their eyes snapping to her and assessing her facial expression and body language.

Apparently deemed calm enough to approach, they all gathered into a small circle, with Junko putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder, giving her a soft smile full of understanding but not saying anything, letting his actions tell her that he forgave her for losing her cool.

“It’s not your fault, Aerrow,” Piper reassured her. “His mind was already made up as soon as he got a good look at us.” At this, all of their expressions turned glum.

Finn gave a scoff and kicked at the ground. “Told you it was a waste of time,” he muttered.

Aerrow gave him a small smile, aware, and grateful, that he was trying to take the attention of her by bringing it on to himself. He caught her gaze and returned it, his lips turning up the smallest bit at the corners.

“It’s fine,” she said. All of them gave her incredulous looks. “Okay, well no, it’s not  _ fine _ fine, but it will be. Even though we’re not official, I’m still a Sky Knight, you’re still my squadron, and we’re still friends, right?”

As she said this, she started walking out of the chamber herself, the others falling into step beside and behind her, all of them making their way, together, out of the hall and into the bright afternoon sunlight.

“Oh, I’m only here until something better comes along,” Stork interjected.

They all ignored him, used to him making similar comments. They all knew it was a bluff on his part, and Stork knew that they knew. If he really wanted to leave them, he would have left already. Still, they humoured him by not calling him out on it whenever he muttered about packing up and abandoning ship - or rather, in his case, abandoning them and taking the ship with him when he left.

“See? We’re fine,” said Aerrow.

“I just wish people would take us seriously!” That was Piper, which was surprising. Normally she had a tight leash on her emotions, and she was rarely one for outbursts of any type. She continued on, “We’re not just kids! Is it really that hard to look past our age?” The last part was directed at them, as if she thought that they knew the answer to it.

All Aerrow could do was shrug. She didn’t understand what age had to do with skill, either. She figured that completing the Trials should have been able to speak for itself - they weren't exactly easy to accomplish, even for adults, and it wasn’t like someone could cheat their way through them.

“I guess some adults just don’t want to acknowledge that someone younger could be better than them at something,” Finn said.

Aerrow, not wanting to linger any more on the bitter feelings that were wanting to well back up inside her, tried to quickly think of something that would take her mind off the topic. Thankfully, something came to mind almost immediately.

“C’mon guys, we need to get going. We still need to restock our supplies, remember? Now, who’s going to be getting what?” She clapped her hands together in front of her, a deceptively innocent smile on her face as she twirled around to face her squadron, all of them suddenly keen on looking in any direction that didn’t leave her in their line of sight.

Sometimes it was just so much  _ fun _ to watch them squirm. They all knew what really sucked about the supply runs; not the actual shopping part - that could actually be quite fun, depending on what they needed to get. No, what nobody wanted to do was what came after the shopping was over - namely, the loading. Aerrow could safely say that loading a  _ minimum _ of twenty heavy crates full of supplies, ranging anywhere from food to parts for their skimmers, was something that all of them tried to avoid to the best of their abilities. Nobody, and she meant  _ nobody, _ wanted to be the one lifting all those crates.

The sound of multiple skimmer engines stopped them from answering, all of them eagerly abandoning her to see where the noise was coming from.

People had started to gather along the sides of the street to their left, large, excited smiles gracing their faces as the sound of engines became even louder, indicating that the drivers were coming in their direction. Her curiosity growing, Aerrow went to join her team, all of them standing on the outskirts of the crowd, their position allowing them to see what was going on without needing to wade into the thick of it.

As soon as five skimmers turned the corner to come fully into view of the crowd, a giant cheer went up from everyone present, some people even beginning to clap. She wasn’t sure why they were - until she caught sight of red and purple uniforms and armour decorated with a painted red eagle.

All at once, the disappointment of the day was washed away, excitement bubbling up in her chest because there, coming towards them, was -

“That’s Carver and the Red Eagles!” Junko exclaimed, awe laced through his voice.

Aerrow nodded robotically, mind still reeling from the idea that she could meet Carver,  _ the _ Carver. He was literally only a few meters away now. All she had to do was take a few steps - 

Piper placed her hands on her shoulders, steering Aerrow forward towards the other Sky Knight. “Come on, guys!” she called. “Let’s go meet them!”

The Red Eagles had stopped in the middle of the crowd, allowing the fans to come close to get pictures, receive autographs, and chat with all the members of the squadron. The boy from before was even allowed to touch Carver’s skimmer, his dad standing behind him proudly. 

When the dad caught sight of them, his smile gained a rather nasty edge. Once more he put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, leaning down to tell him, “You see, son? Now there’s a  _ real _ Sky Knight.” Though he addressed the boy, he made sure to pitch his voice, letting it carry towards them.

His comment caught Carver’s attention, his head turning towards them as they approached.

It wasn’t how she wanted to get his attention, but she supposed that it would have to do. She stretched her arm out, offering him her hand to shake, sure she must have looked dumb-struck but not caring because it was  _ Carver  _ and - 

Words! She needed words. She needed to say  _ something _ to him before she looked like an even bigger idiot.  _ Think - think! It’s not that hard to talk! Oh for the love of God just say something already-! _

“I’m Aerrow.” That worked. She even managed to sound normal. Then, realizing how little that would actually mean to him, she hastened to add on, ”Of the Storm Hawks.” Here, she gestured behind her with her left hand (her right still held out for a handshake), motioning to the rest of her friends. “It’s an honour to meet you.” 

His gaze darted over her figure briefly, then behind her to take in her squadron. He scoffed, turning back to her. “Aren’t you a little young to be a Sky Knight, kid?” he mocked. He turned so that he was facing forwards on his skimmer once more, clearly indicating that he was done talking to her.

Around her, the crowd parted to either side of his squadron, clearing a path for them so that they could peel out without risk of hitting anyone.

Carver gestured to the rest of his squadron, and all five of them drove off, headed in the direction of the tower that was just a few minutes drive outside of town. When the squadron was no longer in view, the crowd dispersed, going back to their daily activities.

Aerrow stood there, gaping, staring after Carver and the others, hand still extended.

And oh look, her anger was back, welling up inside her until it strangled all other emotions she might have been feeling and leaving her seeing red. She bit back the curses she wanted to yell after Carver, knowing he was well out of hearing range and that doing so would just reinforce the idea that they were too young to be a proper squadron in people’s minds. She could practically hear it now: ‘Did you see the way she threw a tantrum?’, and, ‘She acts out like that and still seriously expects us to think that she’s actually a Sky Knight?’.

No, she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her break - so she swallowed the bitter pill that was life, straightened her back, and let her face remain passive on the outside (no matter how much she was raging on the inside). “Storm Hawks,” she said - calm, cool, collected. “We’ll do a quick shop around the town - together, as a group - and then we’re leaving. First up is clothing and toiletry supplies, then crystals, repair parts, and food. After that, we can see about looking for anything that we want to have but isn’t a necessity. Let’s go.”

She stalked over to their skimmers, her friends trailing behind her but choosing to remain silent. While the others got onto their rides (Stork sitting behind Finn), Aerrow climbed the tree to get to her own, starting it and popping off the branch and onto the ground, where Radarr jumped into his sidecar. Once he was secure, she pulled out, perhaps a little more quickly than was needed.

And if she happened to see the father of the little boy standing close to the edge of the road - the little boy off to the side looking at something that had caught his eye - and making a perfect target of himself? Well, she definitely acted like the mature young adult she was; and she definitely didn’t purposely accelerate when she passed him, kicking up a cloud of dust in his direction, causing him to fall into a coughing fit when he breathed it in. No, that _definitely_ only happened because she was _so_ _young_ and _clearly_ didn’t know how to drive her skimmer properly.

She smirked to herself when she heard Radarr snicker.

They hadn’t even been at the clothing stall - looking for material that was both more sturdy and breathed better than what their current uniforms were made out of - for a half-hour when everything suddenly went to hell.

In a matter of seconds, the previously bright, clear sky darkened into a dark black, as if it had suddenly changed its mind and decided that it was actually supposed to be the middle of the night, rather than being in the middle of the day, and that the weather forecast had actually called for thunderclouds. What was a calm, cooling breeze picked up, whipping clothes and hair around in a strong, persistent gale. Anything light enough that wasn’t tacked down was flipped onto its side and then pushed along the ground, leading to mass confusion as people tried to chase down their wayward possessions.

It was Junko who brought their attention to the problem. “Umm, is the light from the Tower supposed to go out?” he asked, pointing to emphasize what he meant. And, indeed, the Tower was missing its characteristic blinding blue glow, instead standing - Aerrow wanted to say that it looked vacant, as if it had had its soul removed and was now just an empty shell of its former self.

“Something must be wrong with the Aurora Stone,” Piper said, eyes narrowed at the Tower.

Aerrow took a quick glance around her: people had started to gather in groups, their unease growing as more and more of them started to realize why the weather had suddenly taken a turn for the worse. Panic was making its way into their systems, and that wasn’t a good thing. A horde of panicking civilians wasn’t something Aerrow wanted to deal with, so she quickly made up her mind. While these people hadn’t been accepting or welcoming, it was still her job to make sure they were safe, and her personal opinion wasn’t going to stop her from doing the right thing.

“Guys!” she called to get her friends’ attention. “Get on your rides. We’re going to go see what’s wrong.” She headed at a run to where they had parked their skimmers, jumping on to it and kicking up the kickstand. Radarr landed on his own seat shortly after, and as soon as she was sure he was secure, she floored it, trusting her squadron to be right on her tail as she sped out of the city to the Tower.

With how quickly they were driving, they managed to cut down the three-minute drive to about half that. They skidded to a stop a short distance away from the Tower’s doors, taking a moment to take everything in.

“What happened?” Finn asked, incredulous. And he had the right to be, because there, in front of the doors to the Tower, were all the members of the Red Eagles, barring Carver, stood frozen completely solid, all of them looking like they had been trying to defend themselves from a surprise attack. The doors themselves had been blasted inwards.

Aerrow hopped off of her Ultra, cautiously approaching the entrance doors and the people frozen around them, keeping a wary eye on her surroundings in case whatever had caused the damage was still around and looking to start a fight with someone new.

“Whatever did this has to be powerful,” Piper commented, a statement and caution rolled together.

“Then we’ll take this slowly,” Aerrow responded, motioning to Finn to take out his crossbow and keep it at the ready. Once the weapon was in his hands, the group eased their way into the tower and up the many flights of steps, stopping regularly to see if they could hear anything moving around above them. When no such sounds came, they continued on, repeating this process until they reached the final landing that led into the room that housed the Aurora Stone.

They crept closer, stopping once they were at the door, which was left swinging open, to peek into the observation room. Everything about it looked normal, if darker, since the only light in the room came from either outside or from the Stone itself. Quietly, they shuffled in one by one. The windows that allowed natural light in and the Stone’s light out were all undamaged, and there were no signs that a fight had taken place. At the center of the circular room stood the Aurora Stone’s containment unit; the only problem was that -

“The Aurora Stone is gone!” Piper gasped.

A chuckle came from their left. A low voice said, “You needn’t worry.”

Aerrow whipped around so that she could face whoever had talked, hands automatically reaching for the blades she kept sheathed on her shoulder blades. They paused before they touched the hilts though, as the figure standing by the window turned to face them.

“Carver?” Aerrow asked. He looked completely fine, not a scratch on him, and he was holding the Aurora Crystal in his left hand, which also looked completely undamaged. While she should have been feeling relieved that the stone was fine and he was unhurt, she mostly felt uneasy. She didn’t know why, but something about what was happening just wasn’t sitting right with her.

She shook herself, pushing her unease to the side for the moment. What mattered was that both Carver and the crystal were okay. “Did you get whoever or whatever it was that attacked you?” she asked, scanning the room again to see if she had missed another person in the room due to the poor lighting. The attacker was probably on the ground somewhere, unconscious or tied up or some combination of the two.

Carver must have seen her looking around, as he interrupted her search. “There’s no one else here, Aerrow.”

“They got away, then?”

Carver gave an aggravated sigh, as if she was a particularly stupid child that he had to explain everything little thing to in order for her to understand anything. “There was no attacker, Aerrow.”

The unease was back with a vengeance.

“What do you mean ‘there was no attacker’?” she demanded, not liking where this was going.

“Oh come now, Aerrow. Can you really not read between the lines?” he mocked. “I mean, I know you’re young, but you can’t really be this naive, can you?”

“Oh, I can read between the lines just fine,” she snapped back, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. What she wouldn’t give to punch that smirk off his face. “Excuse me for needing a little bit of time to wrap my head around the fact that one of the best Sky Knights of our time is a fucking traitor.”

“Hmm, I guess that’s fair,” he conceded, walking to the center of the room. “No one wants to believe that one of their one would go to the other side. But I’ll let you guys in on a secret - it’s something I’ve learned over these past few years.” Here, he adopted an almost boastful tone. “The best way to stay alive? It’s to be smart about your actions. You need to know when it’s okay to stay and fight, to hold your ground and not back down. But you also need to know the opposite, too. You need to know when it’s time to throw in the towel.” 

He paused to gesture at the windows of the tower and everything that laid beyond them. “Every day the Cyclonians gain more territory. Sky Knights and squadrons may as well be a dying breed for how quickly they’re falling. People know that this war is coming to a close, but they refuse to admit to themselves that they picked the wrong side. They choose to live in their delusions that someone is going to come sweeping in to save them. But me? I’m no fool. I was wise enough to see that the winds are changing. And when I was given a chance to be on the winning side, I didn’t hesitate to take it.”

He held up the Aurora Stone, twisting it left and right like he needed to get a good look at it. Then, apparently done with its examination, he clipped it onto the side of his belt, reaching behind him to grab his weapon and bring it out into view. He didn’t activate its crystal, but the threat was clear.

Immediately, Aerrow’s own hands unclenched from the fists they’d balled into, reaching to finally draw out her own daggers. She, unlike Carver, did activate the crystals at the end of them, bringing them to life and casting the room in a bright blue glow. She got into a ready position but didn’t actually move forward, waiting to see if Carver was going to make the first move.

Carver’s face became stormy, clearly not having expected her to draw her own blades; he probably thought that she’d have stepped aside, chosen her life over doing the right thing. Well, did Aerrow have news for him; she wasn’t planning on just rolling over and letting Cyclonis and Cyclonia walk all over her. And she sure as hell wasn’t just going to let that bastard walk out of this room without working for it.

“You’re foolish, girl. The future is Master Cyclonis, and this stone belongs to her.” His voice was dark and dripping with malice, his patience for this little confrontation almost gone.

“The hell it does!”

She didn’t give him the chance to say anything else, launching herself into the air and into a forward somersault, gaining as much power she could to bring both of her daggers down onto Carver’s sword (now glowing red with the power of his crystal), hoping to force him to drop it.

Carver didn’t drop it, instead redirecting her attack, pushing upwards and sideways with enough power that she was launched towards one of the pillars in the room, forcing her to flip herself around to land on it feet-first, then doing another somersault on the way down so that she could land cleanly on her feet in a crouch.

Carver straightened from his crouch as Aerrow rose from hers. He regarded her cooly for a second, face unreadable, before the corners of his lips tugged up in a smirk. He raised his left arm, palm pointed at the ceiling, and curled all his fingers towards him, giving her the universal gesture to ‘bring it’. Meanwhile, his right arm stayed down and at his side, demonstrating just how much of a threat he thought she was - that is, not at all.

Aerrow snarled at him, rushing towards him again. Their weapons met in a fierce clash of blue and red sparks, Aerrow bearing down on his sword as hard as she could with her own two daggers while he strained to keep them away from himself. They stayed locked in that position for a couple of seconds, neither budging so much as an inch, before Carver abruptly pulled back, leaving Aerrow to stumble forward a quick step.

She righted herself quickly enough to notice him finishing his spin to do a backflip, the kick he threw at the end of it only grazing her instead of connecting solidly with her stomach.

She rushed forward again, leaping into the air to bring her foot down on him - but he grabbed it, using her momentum against her as he twisted to the side, throwing her to the ground. She landed on her side with an ‘oof!’ and skidded a few feet away, groaning at the pain in her sides. She barely registered the concerned cries from her friends, too busy keeping her attention on Carver. But he didn’t push his advantage, instead choosing to stand back and watch her next move.

Okay, obviously straight-out attacking him wasn’t working, so it was time to switch gears. Which meant she needed to say something to distract him, say something that could throw him off his game so she could get a good hit in.

_ Come on, Aerrow, _ she thought to herself.  _ There has to be something. His combat technique? No, that’s out considering he's, y’know, winning. Um, his looks? No, that won’t work either - he’s hot  _ (her eyes worked, okay?) _ and he knows it. What about-? Yeah, that could work. _

“You know, Carver,” she said, taking on a casual tone, “for all that you like to toot your own horn that you’re super wise for abandoning ship, I think we both know you’re just spewing whatever bullshit comes to mind-” like she was doing right this moment “- to hide the fact that your actions show you as you are - a coward.”

The smirk that had been on his face was wiped clean off, a thunderous expression taking over and a vein in his temple throbbing.

_ Bingo! _

“Face it, Carver - instead of standing your ground, you turned your back on the people who trusted you and you  _ ran away,” _ she continued, taking her chance to get back on her feet, weapons once again at the ready. “You didn’t do the wise thing, or the right thing; you took the easy way out because you’re weak, and spineless, and  _ pathetic. _ You made an oath to protect the people of Atmos, and you should have been willing to  _ die _ before you broke it.” All through her rant, energy seemed to come pouring into her, replacing her previous anger with a burning determination. She gripped her daggers’ hilts with renewed strength, ready to go again after getting her second wind.

Except - Carver wasn’t mad anymore. In fact, he was back to smirking at her, his cockiness once again draped over his shoulders like a cape.

“Oh, that’s right!” he exclaimed. “I’d forgotten - you fancy yourself a Sky Knight. Well I hate to break it to you,  _ sweetheart, _ but you’re just a bunch of  _ kids.” _ He made sure to make his tone as patronizing as possible, trying to rile her up like she had him just a moment ago.

And the worst part was that it was working. She was getting really fucking tired of people dismissing her because of her age. She  _ was _ a Sky Knight, dammit!

In response to her anger and frustration, the energy spiked higher, reaching a crescendo that  _ sang _ to her,  _ begging _ her to use it, all she had to do was surrender herself to it for just a moment, just a few seconds and it would show her  _ how _ \- all she had to do was trust it and  _ fall _ \- it would catch her - it  _ promised _ -

So she did. 

She closed her eyes and let the energy snapping through her veins loose, could feel it pouring off her until it was almost tangible, making her feel stronger than she ever had before.

Her eyes opened even as she let the energy guide her actions, let it teach her how to unleash it. She leapt up, feeling weightless and like gravity would never sink its claws into her again, twisting in the air until she reached the peak of her jump, where she pulled her arms and legs behind her - her arms so that her blades rested around where she normally had them when they were sheathed, and her legs so that her heels were out to the side but still parallel with her upper thighs. She swung her arms up and over her head so that her daggers met in front of her when her arms were fully extended - almost like she was going to do a bump to return a volleyball - and her legs extended to do a horizontal split. She bent at the waist as she did both of these things, leading to her arms being centered in between her legs by the time the energy was released in a burst.

She watched as the energy blast sailed straight at Carver’s chest, hitting him with enough force that his feet left the ground. He sailed into the podium at the center of the room, cracking his head against its stone floor, not quite unconscious but soon to be there. No longer able to hold up his sword, it clattered to the ground beside him.

It all happened so quickly - one moment she was on the ground, then next in the air, and then she was back on the ground before she even realized what, exactly, it was that she had just done. For all that it felt like everything was moving in slow motion, she knew that only a couple seconds had passed.

With the last of his strength, Carver reached out his right arm in her direction. “That - that was-” he gasped. He was unconscious before he could finish his sentence, his head lolling backwards.

Aerrow stood there and gaped at him, then at her hands and daggers, then at him again.

There was complete silence for a beat, then two - and then her friends broke into loud cheering, rushing towards her to give her fist bumps and throw their arms over her shoulders and ruffle her hair, Aerrow not hesitating to join in because she just  _ won _ and the crystal was  _ safe _ and she had  _ done it, holy crap! _

“When’s the last time you saw a kid do that!” Piper crowed to the unconscious Carver, smug as smug can be. Then she turned back to Aerrow, hardly able to contain her excitement. “Aerrow, you did it! That’s -”

“The Lightning Claw,” Aerrow interrupted, still staring at her hands and daggers in disbelief. “Huh.” She gave her head a shake, sheathing her daggers. Finally, the realization sunk in, and she didn’t bother trying to stop the smile that bloomed on her face, large enough that it was hurting her cheeks. “I guess I finally figured out my Move.”

Finn gave her another slap on the shoulder. “We’re definitely the real deal now, dude!” His eyes caught on the slumped form of Carver. “What are we gonna do with him?” he asked, jerking his chin at the man.

“Well, first things first.” Aerrow approached Carver, crouching down so that she could unclip the Aurora Stone from his belt. She stood, crystal safely cradled in her hands, and climbed the podium so that she could place it back into its containment unit.

Once there, it immediately started to glow even brighter. Sunlight came streaming in through the windows, the bad weather clearing in an instant and going back to what it had been before.

That done, she turned to face her squadron again. “Finn, take your skimmer into town to go get the police. I don’t know how long he’ll be unconscious and I don’t want to risk him waking up while we’re on our skimmers.” Finn gave a salute and rushed out of the room. “The rest of you, help me take a look around to see if there’s anything here we can restrain him with. I don’t want to give him a chance to escape.”

Radarr was the one to find the rope a couple minutes later, and Stork the one to tie Carver’s hands together behind his back, since he was the best at knots out of the group. While they were at it, they also checked to see if there was any blood in Carver’s hair or on the ground behind him, since he had hit his head rather hard. They didn’t like him, sure, but they also didn’t want him to die or suffer any serious head injuries. There wasn’t, so hopefully the knock his head took wasn’t too bad.

Finn came back only a couple of minutes after that, surprisingly - she figured he would have been gone for at least five - but he was leading a group of officers and a paramedic (who immediately went to check on Carver, as he was the only one unconscious and no one else was seriously injured). Aerrow shot him a confused look and got a shrug in return.

“I met them on the road. They were already on their way,” he explained. Which - it made sense. There was no way they wouldn’t have come to investigate if something had happened to the Aurora Stone.

At that point the paramedic, who had finished looking over Carver, came over to her instead, insisting that Aerrow needed to be looked over for any injuries. But besides being sore all over, she was given a clean bill of health. The others didn’t have to worry about being poked and prodded, as they hadn’t done any fighting.

The police took over then, separating the Storm Hawks so that they could be questioned on the events that took place. During this time, Carver had finally come to. He was promptly put into real handcuffs (this time with his hands in front of him). He refused to answer any questions the police asked him, keeping his mouth firmly shut.

All-in-all, they probably stayed in that room for about an hour before the police were ready to let them go and lead Carver downstairs. The Storm Hawks left the room first, but they loitered outside the tower, talking amongst themselves, waiting for Carver to be led outside and into the police car. The bodies of the other Red Eagles were gone, probably having been transferred to the morgue already.

They weren’t the only ones waiting outside, either. A small group of curious on-lookers had gathered during the time they were upstairs, talking to each other in hushed whispers and shooting regular glances at the entrance of the tower. A news crew had also set up, their anchor going over whatever the police had given as a statement.

When Carver was finally led out, a guard positioned on either side of him, a sudden hush overtook everyone present. It lasted only a beat, then murmuring broke back out, these conversations slightly louder than the ones that had been taking place before. The camera spun to capture Carver even as the anchor started to make his way to the senior officer on the scene, hoping to receive an updated statement.

Through it all, Carver kept a blank face, not reacting to the insults hurled at him or the questions being shouted, everyone wanting an answer to ‘why?’. At least, he was calm until he caught sight of Aerrow and her friends. Then his eyes went manic, seeming to hyperfixate on them and nothing else. He lunged towards them, his guards barely having enough time to grab his arms before he made it out of their reach. “The worst is yet to come! Cyclonia will rise again!” he raved at them, spittle flying from his mouth.

He was still ranting by the time they closed the police car’s door in his face, the sudden quiet unsettling once his yelling was muffled.

“How did no one notice he was crazy, again?” Finn muttered to them, but not quitely enough judging by the glares they were now receiving from the closest group of observers. He received an elbow to the side for his troubles, courtesy of Piper.

Thankfully, that interaction wasn’t given any more time to evolve into a fight as somebody called out, “Storm Hawks!”

Three old men were approaching them, one of whom was Chairman Heel. He continued approaching them, but the other two men - probably members of the Council - stayed a few paces away.

Quickly, they all straightened their postures to something more respectable for formal conversations. “Hello, Chairman Heel,” Aerrow greeted.

“I’m happy that we were able to catch you before you left. Would you do us the favour of following us back to Council Hall? We’d like a word with you,” he explained.

All of them shared a quick glance. “We’d be happy to,” Aerrow said.

“Excellent. We’ll be leaving in a few short minutes, so it would probably be best for you to wrap anything else you have to do up.” He gave them all a nod, then walked back to his two companions.

Finn nudged Junko, who was standing beside him. “I bet this is the part where they beg us to protect the terra,” he said with a smirk.

* * *

“Get help?! I can’t believe all they want us to do is go get help!” Finn threw his hands up into the air, waving them to emphasize his words while pacing in front of the circular table.

Normally, Aerrow would be on his side. But he had been complaining ever since they got back onto the Condor. At this point, it was getting annoying.

The meeting with Chairman Heel and the other Council members had taken up most of the afternoon hours, leaving the Storm Hawks with only a short amount of time to restock their supplies. They had practically been a whirlwind in their shopping spree, only staying at any one stall as long as necessary and never longer. Even then they had barely managed to buy everything they needed before the vendors were packing up and closing their stalls.

After they had finished loading their supplies onto the Condor, they gathered together in the kitchen to make an early supper, something quick and easy so that they could have more time to plan their route for the next day.

Well, technically it was Piper who was planning their route, since she was the one in charge of tactics and navigation. They were just there for her to bounce ideas off of until she made her mind up about what course they were going to take in the morning.

So here they were, all of them sitting (sans Piper, who was standing) around the circular table of the common room (aka the bridge of the Condor), the maps spread out over it almost completely covering the Storm Hawks symbol, along with a list of who had volunteered to protect Atmosia until another squadron was ready and where their home terra was.

Finn, however, was making things difficult for everyone. Instead of taking part in the discussion, he kept complaining about the injustice of them being used as a “glorified shuttle”.

Aerrow brought a hand up to rub at her temple. They had been talking about their route for the past couple of hours. A headache was starting to creep in and Finn’s (loud) whining wasn’t helping. At this point, all she wanted to do was finish this meeting, take a shower, then crawl into bed so that she could pass out. It was going to be an early morning tomorrow, and she planned on getting as much sleep as possible.

Piper, clearly done with Finn, finally snapped. She threw her pencil down, straightening back up from where she had been leaning over the table and pouring over the maps.

“Finn!” she napped. Finn, having been about to start his whining again, wisely closed his mouth and kept silent. “I will say this one more time, and after that I don’t want to hear another word from you unless it’s to help, got it?” He nodded meekly, cowed. “Thanks to Carver, there’s no one here to protect terra Atmosia or the Aurora Stone. Not only that, but we’ve been personally assigned a mission from the Sky Knight Council itself. Do you realize how important that is?”

Finn crossed his arms over his chest but remained silent, clearly understanding that Piper was being rhetorical and didn’t actually want him to answer.

Aerrow took the chance to insert herself into the conversation. “Which is why we’ll bring in reinforcements like they asked. This is the chance that we need to prove that we’re not just a bunch of kids, and I’m not willing to screw it up. Are you?” Finn shook his head. “Good. Because once we were dismissed, Chairman Heel pulled me aside for a quick word.”

At this, everyone perked up, turning towards her. They had seen him pull her aside after the meeting with the other councilors was over, but she had deflected all their questions when they asked her what he wanted to talk to her about, telling her friends that she would spill everything once they were on the Condor.

“Chairman Heel was kind enough to offer us a deal,” Aerrow continued. “He told me that if we managed to complete this mission in a timely fashion, with minimum to no problems, then he would be willing to accept our registration as a squadron.”

With every word spoken, the eyes fixed on her grew wider and wider, smiles slowly starting to break across the Storm Hawks’ faces (except Stork, who continued to look shocked and nothing else). Before the last syllable had even fallen from her lips, her friends had started to celebrate. Radarr was doing a little dance from his spot on the couch, Finn and Junko were giving each other high-fives and noogies, and Piper was clapping her hands together excitedly.

“But!” she continued, raising her voice to be heard over their cheers. “But it would only be a sort of parole position as a squadron.” Her heart gave a twinge when she saw their smiles shrink, their utter happiness now marred by a streak of sadness. “I know it’s not what we wanted.” And boy did she, because nothing hurt quite like having her hope stepped on, having their dream be within grabbing distance, only to have it be pushed back father and father from their reach right when they were about to grab it. “But it’ll get our foot in the door. At least it’s a  _ chance _ for us. The more missions we complete after this, the more they’ll see that we’re ready to be a squadron - a real one, no ‘if's’ or ‘but’s about it. It’ll take some time,” she admitted, giving them all a soft smile, “but we’ll get there.”

They all visibly perked back up at that, even Stork.

Aerrow stood, stretching. “As for now, I think it’s safe to say that this team meeting is over.” She shot a glance over to Piper, seeing if the other girl was okay with that, or if she would dispute it because she still needed to bounce ideas off of them. Piper shook her head, already starting to gather the maps so that she could bring them to her room. No doubt she would be looking over their plan once or twice more, perfectionist that she was.

Aerrow shot her a quick smile, reaching down to rub Radarr’s head when she passed him on her way out of the common room, intent on finding the bathroom closest to her bedroom so she could make good on that shower.

* * *

Waking up was hell. 

Aerrow opened her eyes, somehow feeling like she had both slept too much and not enough at the same time. She rolled over, muffling her groan into her pillow, her alarm clock still beeping annoyingly in her ear.

Finally gathering her will, Aerrow rolled back over and swung her legs over the edge of her bed. Her arm shot out, turning off the beeping. She stood, rubbing at her eyes, then took a glance at her alarm clock.  _ 6:00  _ flashed back at her, mocking.

She scowled at it, as if it was the clock’s fault she had to be up so early. She let out another groan, pouting to herself at the lack of a sleep-in, but dutifully set about doing her morning routine now that she was up and standing.

A half-hour later found her walking into the kitchen, hair freshly braided and teeth freshly brushed. Piper was already up - she was one of those freaky morning people - as well as Stork - Merbs generally needed less sleep than humans, so he normally stayed up later than the rest of them and rose before them. None of the others were present, but she had made sure to check that they were up before coming to breakfast herself.

“Morning,” she greeted, taking the plate of pancakes Piper handed to her with a  _ thanks.  _ She made her way to the kitchen table, which was covered in a variety of toppings for the pancakes, such as fruits, syrup, and whipping cream, as well as juice, water, milk, and tea for drinks. She set her plate down next to Stork’s, pulling her chair out and bumping his shoulder with her own after she plopped herself down.

He glanced up briefly and gave her a nod, then immediately went back to his book.

Slowly the others trickled in, each calling out (or chirping in Radarr’s case) a  _ good morning _ with varying levels of enthusiasm. Each collected a plate from Piper that was stacked with food, then made their way to their own seats, Piper only sitting down to join them once the others had collected their plates.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, no one really up for talking, still tired from the early wake up call. Once they were finished eating, Junko and Aerrow took the dirty plates to the sink so that Junko could wash them and Aerrow could dry them and put them away. Finn and Radarr disappeared somewhere, while Piper went to her room to grab whatever map she would need for their morning meeting. Stork made his way to the Condor’s controls, where he would get them up into the air and start them flying in whichever general direction Piper pointed him in.

Once the Condor was on its way and the dishes were clean and put in their proper places, Aerrow and Junko made their way to the bridge. They’d be having one last look at the course that Piper had plotted, and then they’d get to work on chores and repairs while they flew to pick up the first of many volunteers.

By the time she and Junko walked into the bride, Piper had already set up an easel and a map, with the other three standing around it, fiddling with the pointer in her hands as she waited until everyone was present before she started to talk.

Aerrow claimed a spot in between Finn (who was carrying a surfboard, for who knew what reason) and Radarr, while Junko went to stand a little farther right of the group.

Piper wasted no time in starting, flicking her pointer stick onto the map as she outlined their plan. “We’ll be stopping at Terra Blusteria first to meet Joel of the Buff Busters, and then we’ll be off to Tropica - and no Finn, a surfing break is out of the question.” Here she paused to give Finn the “I’m watching you” hand gesture.

Finn pouted, surfboard drooping as he slouched, grumbling as he turned around to prop it on the table behind them.

“I don’t see the big deal about some dumb crystal anyway,” he muttered, fingers fluttering at the word ‘crystal’, dismissing the Aurora Stone as if it were some random gem they could find at any old market and not the most powerful crystal ever found.

“The Aurora Stone is the very symbol of Atmos,” Piper deadpanned, hand rubbing at her temples.

“It’s also the most powerful crystal ever found,” Aerrow added, because even she knew that and her interest in crystals was almost non-existent. “There’s no telling what Master Cyclonis would do with it.” And call her crazy, but she wasn’t very eager to find out.

Of course Stork, being himself, was always eager to add in his two cents when it came to death and destruction. “Let’s not forget the eternal darkness, plague of evil, and -“ he whipped out a human skull from nowhere ( _ where did he-?) _ “- endless suffering that would certainly follow.”

He’d barely stashed the skull away again ( _ seriously,  _ **_where_ ** _?) _ before the Condor’s alarms started blaring. Stork twitched, eyes flickering around them quickly before he reached for one of his many periscopes to see what had set off their alarms. “Maybe it’s starting already.” There was a couple seconds of silence. “Yup, I was right,” he muttered, pulling back and handing the periscope to Aerrow so she could take a look at whatever was out there.

_ Let’s see. Cloud, cloud, more clou- oh. Well that’s not good. _ Aerrow pulled back, heart fluttering and stomach sinking, breakfast not sitting very well anymore. She turned to the others, mouth dry.

“Talons and a battle cruiser,” she told them. Their expressions took on the edge of panic that she felt. “They’re heading for Atmosia. There won’t be enough time to get help. We’re going to have to handle this - alone.”

Stork slid over to Piper, both of them grimacing, while Finn and Junko traded a nervous look, eyes wide. Aerrow didn’t blame them. She’d be trading looks with the others herself if she wasn’t the leader. They weren’t exactly novices when it came to fighting Talons, but they were still far from veterans. Their fights were always few and far between, and they never took on more than a small squad’s worth at a time.

Seeing dozens of Talons and a battle cruiser all at once? Especially as their first major battle? Yeah, it was jarring. Still, she needed to put on a brave face. She pushed her queasiness to the side so that she could focus on getting the job done.

“Piper and Stork, you’ll stay here. The Condor is going to need to take on that cruiser to keep it off of us,” she directed. Piper and Stork nodded, running over to the Condor’s controls. Aerrow then turned to Junko, Finn, and Radarr. “You guys are with me. We’re going to be the ones engaging the fliers. We have five minutes at most before they’re going to be on us, so grab everything you need because ready or not, it’ll be wheels up when they do.”

Together they sprinted down the corridor located on the left side of the bridge, following it all the way back until they hit the hatch in the floor, climbing down two flights to reach the hangar, where their skimmers, armour, and weapons were stored. All the while, the alarms kept blaring, a reminder to keep moving, that their time was limited.

They raced over to the cabinet that housed their armour. Pieces were quickly taken out and handed over to their proper owners. Armour was placed onto shoulders, forearms, chests, stomachs, thighs, knees, and shins, held in place by small, thinly-sliced sticking crystals dotted along the back of the armour. 

While Junko put on his knuckle busters and Finn loaded up his energy crossbow, Aerrow slotted her daggers into place on her back. Then she went to help Radarr pack various tools and gadgets into his own pack, only taking a break from that to tell Finn to put some of the weapons he was attaching to his skimmer back.

“You know she’s right, Finn,” Junko said when Finn tried to weasel his way out of it. He was by his own Air III EL, loading missiles into their spots under the wings. “That thing is never going to fly.”

Finn hesitated, looking back and forth between them and his Air III, which was entirely covered by ammo and weapons, only his seat not covered by either. Finally he shrugged, taking everything off of it except for a small bag of energy crystals, which he left hanging from his handles, probably as refills in case the ones currently in this crossbow ran out of juice. 

Aerrow nodded her approval, turning back to Radarr and his bag.

In what felt like both no time at all and an eternity later, Piper was turning off the alarms and telling them to mount their skimmers and turn them to face the hangar’s doors.

Aerrow watched, hands clammy and heart fluttering anxiously again, as the doors pulled apart, letting the air through, howling as it gusted against them, tugging at their hair.

“ _ Standby. Launching in T minus thirty seconds,” _ came Piper’s voice over the intercom.

Aerrow took the chance to shoot a quick look at her three friends, hoping and praying that this wouldn’t be the last time that she would see any of them alive. 

Should she do a speech? If this was a movie, the captain or whoever would be making a speech right now, right? Something that would give the people following them into battle hope, something that would put smiles on their faces even as they were going to war. 

Ah, screw it, she may as well.

“So nobody believes in us, huh?” she said, catching the attention of everyone in the hangar. “Well now’s the time to prove them wrong.” As she kept talking, the more confidence she gained, some of the worry of what was about to happen being replaced by confidence. “But this isn’t like when we play ‘Stop the Sky Knight’ or ‘Last One Does the Dishes’ - this is the  _ real deal.  _ So whatever you do -” and here she trailed off, unsure of where exactly she was going with this. “Um… try not… to… mess up?” she finished lamely, voice tilting up at the end, cringing. 

Yeah, she really didn’t think that one through.

“Dude,” Finn said, ”worst motivational speech ever.” Yes, thank you, Finn, she realized that.

“ _ T minus five seconds, guys!” _

Aerrow rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. “You know what I meant.”

“ _ Go!” _

“Let’s do this!” Aerrow exclaimed. She gunned it, peeling out of the hangar at top speed and Finn and Junko on her heels. Her wings were deployed almost as soon as her back wheel left the flight deck, courtesy of Radarr, and together the four of them made their way to the approaching Talons and battle cruiser, Aerrow taking point.

“Just remember the plan and we’ll be fine!” she called back to them, turning her head slightly to the side so that the sound could carry back to Junko and Finn.

“I - uh - I forgot the plan!” Junko called, nerves clear in his voice.

“Keep them off that terra.” That was Finn, which was nice. He and Junko were closest to each other, and any words of reassurance from Finn would be sure to calm Junko down better than if they came from her.

The distance between her squad and the Cyclonians was closing quickly, giving them the opportunity to get a better look at what they were up against. The first was, of course, the enemy’s overwhelming numbers. Everywhere she looked she saw nothing but Talons, Talons, and more Talons. The good news, though, was that they all seemed to be just regular foot soldiers.

No, what concerned her were the three people leading the army of Talons. They didn’t wear the standard Talon uniform, instead dressed however they pleased. One of them was a woman decked out in purple, from the tips of her hair to the bottom of her toes, riding on a Talon Switchblade. The other was a large, burly man with blue hair, riding a Heli-Blade. The last one was also a man, dressed in red and black and a fair amount of armour, the Cyclonian symbol proudly displayed on his chest. He had to be the youngest of three yet he was still taking point. He, like the woman, rode a Talon Switchblade.

For some reason, Aerrow thought she should recognize him. She just couldn’t put her finger on the ‘why’ of it.

She was interrupted from her musing by Finn flying up along beside her. “Um, Aerrow?” he said. “That’s the Dark Ace. As in,  _ the _ Dark Ace.” 

Aerrow paled.  _ Well, _ she thought,  _ that explains why I thought he looked familiar.  _ It was honestly sort of sad that she hadn’t recognized him right off the bat, considering how many posters there were of him all around the Atmos, warning Sky Knights and their squadrons to keep away from him at all costs.

There came a crackle from her Ultra’s radio, signaling an incoming transmission from the Condor. She didn’t have a chance to ask what was wrong before Piper was talking.

“ _ As in the youngest commander of the Cyclonian empire?” _ Piper asked, voice pitched higher than normal. “ _ As in the one who’s never lost a single Sky Duel?” _ She was getting progressively louder with each word. “ _ Aerrow, you have to get out of there; you practically have a target painted on your back! There’s no way he’ll just ignore you!” _

“We all know that that’s not an option, Piper,” Aerrow responded. “If we leave then there really  _ would _ be no one to guard the Aurora Stone. At least if we’re here there’s still a fighting chance.”

A sigh.

“ _ I know.”  _ A beat. “ _ Just promise us you’ll be careful, please?” _

“I promise,” she said, trying to fill her voice with as much warmth as possible.

“We’ve got your back, Aerrow,” Junko called out from behind her. She glanced behind herself, feeling something warm drip through her veins at the sight of his and Finn’s smiles.

She just barely had the chance to smile back at them before Dark Ace swung his sword forwards over his head, sending the Talons forward and starting the battle. 

From there everything seemed to blur together, the fight becoming nothing but a haze of dodging by the skin of her teeth, destroying any skimmer that came within her reaching distance, and lending a hand to Junko or Finn when they needed it and having them return the favour. It seemed that for every Talon she removed from battle, two more would pop up to take their place. The  _ boom! _ of cannon fire from the cruisers synchronised with the blood pounding in her head. Sweat gathered on her brow, beaded down her back, even though the battle couldn’t have been going on for more than a handful of minutes. Skimmers were flying back and forth, trying to disorient her, making it harder for her to keep focused on any one target she set her eyes on.

It was absolute chaos.

She was loving every minute of it.

And the best part? The best part was the fact that the Storm Hawks were holding their ground. As the battle raged on, more and more Talons were dropping like flies, skimmers having been destroyed or riders having been pushed off their rides. 

Gradually, Aerrow had to start turning her head to find another target, rather than always having a Talon in her direct line of sight no matter where she turned. Finally she had room to breathe, no longer being swarmed by Talons.

Which is what allowed her to finally catch sight of  _ him. _

Dark Ace was lazily circling above the battlefield, watching as his side’s numbers dwindled yet still not making a move to join the fight himself. 

He probably thought that he could get away with not fighting; Aerrow was more than ready to prove that assumption wrong.

She quickly glanced around, checking to make sure that Junko and Finn didn’t need any help - they didn’t - before starting to ascend to where the Dark Ace was hovering, his attention now caught on the Condor duking it out with the Talon cruiser.

Beside her, Radarr let out a chirp of confusion as they moved farther away from the battle.

“New plan, Radarr,” she told him. Her eyes never left Dark Ace, unwilling to let him go now that she had her chance. “I’m thinking that if we take out the commander, the others will fly away with their tails between their legs when they see that not even their best was good enough to stop us. What do you think?”

Radarr let out a hesitant chirrup. He obviously thought that she was crazy for seeking this particular opponent out, but nevertheless was still willing to follow her into battle, ever loyal to her.

“Thanks, buddy,” she told him. And she meant it. If Radarr had said no, she would have listened to him and they both knew it. Yet here he was, willing to give her the chance to make her own decisions, fight her own battles. He was trusting her to be safe - and hopefully  _ win, _ to end this battle before they lost anyone on their side _. _

She wasn’t planning on letting him down.

Aerrow pulled to a stop slightly behind and to the left of Dark Ace, close enough for him to be able to hear her but not so close that she was within arm’s length of him. She let her Ultra hover there while she leaned forward to rest her left elbow on her dash and her chin on her fist.

Even though he must have heard her hovering there, Dark Ace didn’t turn to face her. He simply cocked his head to the side so that his left ear was facing her, allowing him to be able to hear her better, but other than that he kept his eyes on the cruisers. Maybe he thought she was one of his Talons coming in to report? 

Eh, whatever. It just provided her with an opportunity to grab his attention by trying to wind him up.

“Hey there, pretty boy,” she jeered, taking great enjoyment in watching him stiffen. A smirk crawled across her face. “Wanna dance?” 

He whipped around to face her, giving her her first clear view of his face.

_ Oh come on! _ she despaired silently, just barely managing to keep her smirk in place. She had called him a pretty boy to irritate him, not to have it back backfire on her because it was true!

Although, she reflected perhaps too seriously, it would probably be more accurate to describe him as handsome rather than pretty. His jawline was sharp, his nose straight and thin, and the way his inky hair fell across his forehead brought attention to his wine red eyes.

Even when he was gaping with shock - clearly the thought that a Storm Hawk would come directly to him hadn’t even crossed his mind - he was unfairly attractive.

She gave herself a shake. Now wasn’t the time to be staring into his eyes like some love-sick fool. She had a battle to win. There was no way she was going to let his  _ looks _ be what stopped her.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have more time to enjoy his shock. He composed himself rather quickly after that, mouth closing and lips pulling into a (rather impressive) scowl.

“You’re a young one.” 

_ Dammit, _ even his voice was hot! 

“You’re one to talk,” she retorted automatically. Not the most witty comeback ever uttered, but it was true. Either he aged very well or he couldn’t be older than his early twenties.

He ignored her comment. “I’ll give you one chance to pull your squadron out of this battle. If you agree to retreat, we won’t pursue you. However, if you choose to stay and continue to fight, I will be forced to intervene. And if that were to happen,” he added darkly, a mocking smile gracing his lips,”I wouldn’t be able to guarantee that you would all live to see another day. You have thirty seconds to decide.”

Well wasn’t _that nice_ _of him,_ offering her a full _thirty seconds_ to think about what she wanted to do? And it was _such a generous offer,_ how could she _not_ give it the full deliberation that it deserved?

She made a production of getting into a thinking pose, exaggerating the movement of drumming her fingers on the dash while she made progressively louder humming sounds. She even turned her torso sideways, as if checking to see what Radarr thought about Dark Ace’s proposal.

Radarr shrugged.

Dark Ace’s expression was turning darker by the second. By the time her thirty seconds were up, Aerrow was sure she could hear him grinding his teeth together. Still, he was true to his word and did give her the time he said he would, making no move to attack her or cut the time short no matter how pissed off he was.

“Your decision?” he demanded, the light in his eyes begging her to not take the offered deal so that he could take a swing at her with that sword of his.

“Well, first of all, I just have to say that it was a  _ very _ generous offer, and I am  _ so honoured _ that you made it,” Aerrow said, stalling for time as she slowly started to inch her Ultra forward, readying herself for (and alerting Radarr to) the sudden acceleration they would be experiencing in just a moment. “But I’m going to have to decline.”

Dark Ace’s eyes widened. He must have thought she was stupid for not taking the chance to leave with alive, but really, what other option was there other than to stay and fight? No matter which option she took, both options were bad.

Sure they could leave, but that would brand them at best cowards and at worst traitors. Plus Master Cyclonis would also gain possession of the Aurora Stone to do who knows what with it. Or they could stay and fight, and it was true they might die, but at least if they did stand their ground there was still a chance they could win.

She was willing to take that chance, and she knew her friends were too. Hell, that was the whole reason they had engaged the Talons in the first place. If Aerrow were to take the coward’s way out then she would be no better than Carver, and her friends would never forgive her.

That was something she wouldn’t be able to live with.

All of this left her with one option: telling the Dark Ace that he could shove it.

Speaking of -

“Get fucked,” she told him, blunt as blunt can be. She even threw him a middle finger. Just so he would get the message, of course. It had nothing to do with her being petty, no sirree.

Then she flew away as quickly as possible, her and Radarr laughing like loons. She could even just barely hear him cursing her out over the wind in her ears, which just made her laugh even harder.

Now, was it her smartest idea to provoke someone known throughout the Atmos for his Sky Dueling abilities?

No, not even close. 

She was just hoping that doing so would keep Dark Ace’s attention firmly on her. It would take everything she had just to keep up with him. She couldn’t afford for him to suddenly change targets and start going after her friends.

Hence her simple but dumb (very,  _ very _ dumb) solution.

“Is he following us?” she asked Radarr, not daring to turn around. She was heading back towards the fray and didn’t want to risk a chance of crashing into something if she took her eyes off what was in front of her

Radarr chirped an affirmative.

Thus commenced their game of cat and mouse, Aerrow leading and Dark Ace chasing, flying in zigzags all across the battlefield, Aerrow just barely managing to stay ahead of the Talon commander, all while dodging the blasts of red energy that he was firing off and taking out whichever Talons she could along the way.

Eventually, though, their little game had to end. Aerrow’s arms were starting to get tired from all the swinging they had been doing. If she kept avoiding Dark Ace for too long, there was a very real possibility that by the time he caught up to her she wouldn’t be able to lift her arms to defend herself, much less actually mount an attack.

“Now or never then,” she muttered. Quickly, not giving herself a chance to hesitate, she brought her Ultra into a sharp U-turn, letting her left wings dip towards where the ground (far, far below) would be and then straightening back out once she was fully turned around, this time flying directly towards the young Talon commander.

She let go of her right throttle, reaching back with her newly freed hand to grab hold of a dagger and bring it back in front of her, held at the ready.

With the distance between her and Dark Ace now closing rapidly, the man across from her jumped up and out of his seat, landing with one foot braced on the front of his Switchblade and the other braced on its wing, giving himself the high ground.

There was no time for her to do the same and bring them back onto even fighting ground - they were too close - 

She swung, hoping to catch one of his legs - 

He jumped over her swing -

She watched as his skimmer flew away, rider-less.

_ Where the hell did he-? _ she thought, only to cut that thought off when she caught sight of movement in her peripherals. She swung around.

Dark Ace was standing on the edge of one of her wings, smirk firmly in place. 

“Since you’re new at this, allow me to explain the ground rules,” he said. He lunged towards her, fingers digging into the shoulder of her arm with the weapon, ignoring her cry of shock and pain and Radarr’s chirp of concern. Crouched in front of her, he pulled her up by her captive shoulder so that they were face to face, his red eyes boring into her green ones. His voice took on a hard edge. “There are none,” he growled. “If you live, you win. And just so you know,  _ I never lose.” _

Then he leaned in closer, bringing his lips next to her ear, a twisted parody of what would normally be the position of lovers muttering sweet nothings to each other. His grip tightened, sure to leave bruises in the shape of fingers. “And if you ever talk to me like that again,” he muttered darkly, “I  _ will not _ hesitate to cut your tongue out.”

He shoved her back into her seat by her shoulder, Aerrow letting out an ‘oof’ as her back connected with it. Letting out a dark laugh, Dark Ace front-flipped off the front of her skimmer, landing on his own as it passed by underneath her. He flew off, leaving her to glare at his back with her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

* * *

A couple minutes later, Aerrow was more than ready for this duel to be over.

At this point her arms were beginning to ache. The Talon general and her were almost constantly trading blows back and forth, only separating from each other long enough to bring their skimmers back around for the next attack. And that  _ asshole _ wasn’t exactly helping any, with how much force he put behind each of his strikes. Aerrow was honestly surprised that he hadn’t yet managed to knock her dagger from her hand.

They had just finished their latest skirmish, disengaging from each other with a shower of sparks. Aerrow watched as Dark Ace started to bring his Switchblade around, taking the brief respite to wipe the sweat off her forehead with the back of her forearm.

Apparently she didn’t have as large of a window as she thought she did, though. She brought her arm down to see a burst of red energy speeding at her. Desperately, she  _ yanked _ on her Ultra’s handles, sending it into a roll to the left, praying that she had managed to dodge the attack.

The screech of tearing metal told her she hadn’t.

Aerrow looked over her right shoulder to see what damage had been done, eyes going wide, face going pale, and heart leaping into her throat at what she saw. Or rather, what she didn’t see - because where Radarr’s co-pilot seat normally attached to her skimmer, all she saw was a gaping hole in her skimmer’s side, the arm holding the two units together having been completely torn off.

“Radarr!” she cried, eyes swiveling back and forth and torso twisting from side to side, trying to find his blue form.  _ Please, he has to be fine. I can’t lose him, I  _ **_can’t_ ** _ - _

_ There! _

He was floating gently downwards, parachute deployed and not a mark on him. As if sensing her eyes on him, Radarr looked up at her. He gave her a large smile and thumbs up, letting her know that he was okay - shaken maybe, but not hurt.

Aerrow breathed a sigh of relief, heart still beating fast but no longer feeling like it was going to pop out of her chest.

Just as quickly as it came, though, the relief washed away, rage taking its place, burning through her veins and tinting her vision red.

Her head whipped forward again, eyes immediately locking onto the form of Dark Ace. His back was towards her, in the process of making another loop to come back around. And even though he wasn’t taunting her for not managing to dodge the blast - hell, he wasn’t even looking at her!- Aerrow still felt as her anger went from ‘barely present’ to ‘homicidal’ at the sight of him alone.

With Dark Ace’s back to her and his sword currently in his right hand (the asshole was ambidextrous, which was a major pain in the ass to deal with), Aerrow took her chance. Her fatigue forgotten, she turned on the dime, accelerating towards him at top speed. 

Holding her dagger at the ready, she came up on his left, lining herself up just so. She sped past him, her arm jerking a little when the resistance against her dagger changed from air to metal, its tip biting into the metal of Dark Ace’s skimmer, sparks flaring up along its path.

She glanced over her shoulder to see if she had managed to harm, only to tisk in irritation.

It was only Dark Ace’s reflexes that saved his leg from being severed off below the knee. She wasn’t sure what exactly it was that alerted him to her presence and surprise attack, but he had managed to lift his whole body into a brief handstand on his handlebars, allowing him to safely remove his leg from her line of attack. Then, once she was no longer in reach, he lowered himself back down into a proper seated position, smirking at her all the while.

Since normal attacks didn’t seem to be working, she supposed it was time to crank their fighting up a notch.

She pulled into another turn, this time heading straight for him instead of aiming to pull up alongside him. Dark Ace, catching her hint, jumped out of his seat and onto his wings. Aerrow didn’t hesitate to copy him, only taking a second to make sure to engage her auto-pilot before she was up and out of her own seat, pulling out her second dagger. 

“So you fancy yourself a Sky Knight? Well then, where’s your fancy Move?” he taunted, lips still turned up at the corners, mocking.

Aerrow didn’t bother with responding to him verbally, instead focusing her attention inwards, looking for the energy that had filled her just the day before. To her surprise, it was easy to find. It seemed that once she had unleashed it for the first time, it sat just below the surface of her skin, twisting back and forth, waiting to be called out and greeting her like an old friend when she reached for it. She gave it a tug, letting it flow up and out, coating her in the new, yet already familiar, energy.

Aerrow was going to savour his look of shock for the rest of her life. Dark Ace had clearly thought her unable to perform a signature Move, something that all Sky Knights could do, each Move unique to the Knight. The joke was on him though, and she was going to enjoy watching him and his skimmer go down in flames.

She leapt, movements flowing smoothly as she unleashed her second Lightning Claw in as many days.

She landed deftly, scanning the horizon around her, trying to see where her opponent had gone.

But she couldn’t see him or his skimmer anywhere.

_ Where the hell-? _

“Good form,” a low voice whispered in her ear, sounding genuine in its praise.

_ Shit! _

Aerrow turned so quickly she almost lost her balance, bringing her weapons around just in time to block a blow aiming for her throat. She grunted with the exertion, straining to keep his weapon from moving any closer to her.

“But you need to work on the landing,” Dark Ace tacked on. Considering she had apparently landed on his Switchblade, she figured that was a fair point.

He quickly changed the direction he was pushing his weapon against hers, so that they were shoved up over her head from the unexpected reapplication of force.  _ Double shit! _ While she stumbled to try and regain her balance, Dark Ace blurred into a spinning side kick. He moved so quickly that she barely even registered the motion. Once second she was on the skimmer, the next there was a solid weight crashing into her stomach with so much force behind it that she was lifted off her feet and the skimmer, falling backwards through the air.

It took a moment for the series of events to catch up with before she was scrambling to flip so that she was falling with her back to the sky, reaching behind her to stow her daggers and extend her wing gliders.

Aerrow stretched her arms back out, making sure that her bracelets caught on the hooks to extend the wings, and then keep them that way once they were out. She jerked a bit once they were fully extended, catching the wind so that she could level out and have an easier time keeping her eyes on her opponent.

Not that she particularly  _ wanted _ to see him, especially when he started to glow a red to match his eyes, leaping into the air with a backwards flip and gaining more height than should be possible, bringing his arms behind his head like he was going for a downwards strike and legs bending back slightly, chest puffed out.

Her eyes barely had time to widen with the realization that he was  _ using a Move _ \- something that should have only been possible for Sky Knights - before a giant red energy shot was heading straight towards her, larger than any of the others that had been fired at the start of the battle.

She didn’t know if he had missed on purpose or if she was lucky, but thankfully it didn’t end up hitting her straight on. It did clip one of her wings, though. Her balance thrown off and her weight too much for only one glider wing, she immediately started to lose altitude, rolling over and over again. The ground was getting closer and closer, dizzying in its approach as she caught glimpses of it in her endless rotations, unable to correct her position so that she could land with the less risk possible to herself. She could make out that she was falling towards the center of the town, but that was about it.

This was going to hurt.

Aerrow hit the ground wing first, feeling the metal snap off and smack into her legs even as she was sent rolling and skidding across the earth, thrown by her momentum gained during the fall. She skidded along on her back, hit something, bounced, then continued skidding, this time on her stomach, trying to use her arms to keep her from completely eating dirt and to slow her down.

She came to a stop in a cloud of dust, aching all over and coughing every time she breathed in the dusty air but surprisingly not too injured. Huh. They must have been closer to Terra Atmosia than she had thought. Which was good for her because it meant that she hadn’t fallen far before hitting the ground and that she had hit the ground  _ period _ (she wasn’t that big a fan of the other option, as in falling into the Wastelands). The bad news: the chances of the Talons having had the chance to sneak away from the fight to steal the Aurora Stone while she was distracted with Dark Ace just increased exponentially.

As if wanting to prove her right, there was a change in brightness that was visible even to her, even facing the ground as she was. While it had been around mid-morning when the fight started, it was still shaping up to be a beautiful day, full of the promise of sunshine.

Now, shadows were starting to stretch in front of her and the wind was picking up, beginning to howl as it tore through the street, loud and quick. A quick glance upwards showed that clouds had converged together, blotting out the sun with a miserable grey. 

Groaning, Aerrow pulled her arms in underneath her to leverage her torso off the ground, turning so that she was more on her side. She had just reached a half-seated position when another shadow fell over her, somehow darker than all the others that had formed when the Aurora Stone was removed from its containment unit.

A sword was held to her throat, far enough away that she wasn’t burned when its crystal buzzed to life but close enough that she got the message. One wrong move and she would find herself down one head.

Her eyes followed the long blade up to the expert hand holding it, then further up to a strong arm and broad shoulder and finally to that handsome face and sharp red eyes. His lips were tugged up in a condescending smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. No, they were sharp, cold. For Dark Ace, there was no joy in winning the battle. This had been the expected outcome since the start, so why would he feel any pleasure in what he knew to be inevitable. 

But he surprised her. Instead of finishing her off and making an example out of her, Dark Ace actually turned his crystal off and pulled his sword away, his eyes locked on hers the entire time. 

Aerrow didn’t bother with reaching for her daggers. They both knew she was beat.

“This is the part where I claim victory,” he declared, directing it at her even though the crowd that was gathering around would be able to hear, Aerrow just barely able to see them from the corner of her eye. Apparently, the humiliation of her defeat wasn’t going to be enough for him. It seemed that she was also going to be the subject of his gloating words, laying in the dirt, both figuratively and metaphorically below him while he loomed over her, biting her tongue and having to take his ridicule lest she lose it for trying to talk back. From the triumphant gleam that entered his eyes, he was pleased by her helpless rage. “But since you’re young, I think I’ll allow you a lifetime to stew in your defeat. Then it can really sink in - that you’re not even close to my level.” 

Three Talons approached on their skimmers, one holding the Aurora Stone, its unmistakable blue glow coming out through his fingers. Like a pleased cat carrying a dead bird back to its owner as a present, the Talon presented the precious stone to his commander. Dark Ace took it from him, holding it up so that everyone could see it, as if he was erasing any doubts that what he held wasn’t the symbol of Atmos.

Dark Ace turned to address the crowd. “Your own sworn protector turns on you, and Atmosia sends  _ children _ instead of  _ Sky Knights?” _ he asked incredulously, pointing his sword at Aerrow again to emphasize his point. He let out a scoff and spat at her feet. “How pathetic.” Dark Ace shoved the crystal into one of the pouches located at his hip then mounted his Switchblade, giving all those present one last scathing glance. “The wrath of Cyclonia is your future now.”

He and his Talons revved their engines and drove off, switching their skimmers into flight mode once they had gained enough momentum. As soon as their wheels were off the ground, frantic whispers broke out, buzzing around her ears as Aerrow tried to stand up.

She had a couple of false starts before two pairs of hands came to her aid, the smaller pair grabbing her right arm and the larger grabbing the other and her waist. 

“Are you okay, Aerrow?” came Junko’s frantic yet soft voice - he would have been the owner of the larger hands, which left Finn as the person standing to her left, since his hands were too big to be Piper’s.

She brushed the question to the side for the moment, more concerned about the lack of her other friends. While she wouldn’t describe herself as okay, she would survive. But she hadn’t heard from Piper or Stork since the beginning of the battle, and she hadn’t seen what had happened to Radarr after his co-pilot seat had been torn off the side of her skimmer. She would focus on herself once she knew that their other friends were accounted for and not in danger of dying. “Where are the others?” she rasped, wincing at the soreness of her throat. Apparently, dirt wasn’t something that one should inhale. 

Who knew, right?

She heard the sound of Piper’s Heliscooter at the same time she heard the other girl call out her name. A relieved smile painted Aerrow’s face when she realized that all three of her unaccounted for teammates were with Piper. 

Radarr didn’t even wait for the skimmer to be completely on the ground before he was launching himself into her arms, which had opened automatically once she saw him lunge at her. She caught him in a hug, which, though brief, melted some of the tension that she wasn’t aware that she was holding. He scrambled to perch on her back as Piper and Stork walked over, Piper gently touching her arm and asking if she was okay.

“I’m fine,” Aerrow assured, reaching to give Radarr a pat.

“The Aurora Stone, in the hands of Cyclonis and her Talons!” a grave voice interrupted, pulling Aerrow and her friends out of their little bubble and back into the here and now. Chairman Heel was approaching them, and all around them were frightened faces of civilians, none of them knowing what to expect now that Cyclonis had access to the most powerful crystal in all of the Atmos. “Something must be done,” he informed them. “She cannot keep that crystal. The entire future of the Atmos rests in it.”

Aerrow knew that all too well. “Don’t worry,” she told him, even as a plan started to form in her mind. “Something will be done.”

Finn leaned in closer to her to whisper confusedly, “It will?”

She gave him a firm nod. “We’re going to Cyclonia to get it back.” This was no time for hesitation. If they wanted even a chance at getting it back before Cyclonis could use it against the Free Atmos, they had to be sure and they had to move quickly.

Incredulous faces stared back at her, from her team and from the people of Atmosia. 

Stork studied her carefully, scrutinizing every inch of her face. Then he gave a long-suffering sigh. “We’re doomed.”

She beamed back at him.

That wasn’t a no, afterall.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for giving this a read! I'm going to leave this marked as completed, because like I said, I'm thinking that I will add more but it's not a guaranteed thing. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer. Hoped you enjoyed!


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